Submillimeter Wave Technology

Radar Signatures and Analysis

The U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) has the DoD mission to provide, analyze, and validate radar signature data on threat ground vehicles and helicopters. To accomplish this mission, NGIC has established the ERADS project for the production and analysis of microwave and millimeter-wave signatures. Through the ERADS project, NGIC and its contractors acquire target signature data using multiple methods, including scaled high-frequency compact range measurements, turntable and field radar facilities, and a variety of computational electromagnetic codes.

The technological breakthroughs distinguishing ERADS' approach are the high-frequency compact range radars that NGIC and its contractors have developed and perfected over the past fifteen years of performing scaled RCS measurements. The compact range radar systems developed for this effort now have capabilities equal to those of the most sophisticated field radars and can be tailored to specific needs. By measuring radar signatures using those high-frequency compact ranges and, whenever practical, using data from field measurements as well as computational electromagnetic codes, ERADS provides solutions for a customer's radar signature requirements in a manner that is cost-effective, rigorously accurate, and thoroughly benchmarked.